Envelope construction



Jan. 2, 1962 J. L. KNIGHT ENVELOPEZ CONSTRUCTION Filed July 18, 1958 unnuununununnununinnnnnn unnnunpununuu nnnnnununnnn Job/7 /07/576 INVENTOR.

Patented Jan. 2, 1932 3,015,438 ENVELOPE CONSTRUC'HN John L. Knight, 5526 Fire Fly St., Houston, Tex. Filed July 18, 1958, Ser. No. 74E-9,385 4 Claims. (el. 23S-61.12)

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in envelope constructions.

This application is a continuation-in-part of application Serial No. 704,442, iled December 23, 1957, now abandoned.

Heretofore, efforts have been made to provide envelope constructions which were capable of being automatically sorted as to destination by mechanical or electronic business machines of the key punch type. However, so far as is known, such prior efforts have been conned to envelope constructions in which key punch openings were provided on a side extension of the envelope. With such prior constructions, the area for the key punch designators or openings is necessarily limited to prevent the envelopes from becoming excessively long. On the other hand, if it is attempted to increase the area for the key punch openings while keeping the length of the envelope approximately the usual size of standard envelopes, then the pocket area for the letter in such prior envelope constructions is extremely small. Therefore, a letter must be folded until it becomes small enough to iit into the envelope pocket, but then the letter is relatively thick and bulky in the envelope and such additional thickness may interfere with the use of the envelope in the usual mechanical or electronic business machines.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a new and improved envelope construction which is approximately the usual size of standard envelopes and which has a maximum area for punch-out designators while at the same time providing an envelope pocket of a size substantially the same as provided in standard envelopes, whereby a maximum number of designations is possible with the punch-out designators in the envelope without requiring an excessive length for the envelope or a folding of letters placed in the envelope pocket into a greater thickness than required for standard envelopes.

An important object of this invention is to provide a new and improved envelope in which the full length of the envelope is utilized, both at the top and bottom thereof, for punchout designators to indicate the destination or similar information, whereby the maximum number of Asuch punch-out designators may be placed in a row at the top and bottom of the envelope.

Another object of this invention is to provide a new and improved envelope construction in which a strip is provided at the top, bottom, and both sides of the envelope for punch-out designators, whereby an envelope of substantially standard size has a sufficient area in such strips to provide punch-out designators for each State of the United States, a large number of the cities in the particular state of destination, and the postal zone number for the destination of the letter, whereby the letter may be readily sorted for delivery automatically by conventional mechanical or electronic business machines of the key-punch type.

A further object of this invention is to provide a new and improved envelope construction in which punch-out designators are positioned in a row along each edge of the envelope so that the designators which are punched out are readily detected by their relationship to the edge of the envelope, and therefore even the most simple types of known mechanical or electronic business machines may be used for sorting the envelopes.

The preferred embodiment of this invention will be described hereinafter, together with other features thereof, and additional objects will become evident from such description.

The invention will be more readily understood from a reading of the following specification and by reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part thereof, wherein an example of the invention is shown, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the envelope construction of this invention in a position prior to the folding of the various sections together;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the envelope construction of this invention as viewed from the back side thereof; and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary view of the left hand lower corner of FiG. 2 in an enlarged form to more fully illustrate the preferred type of punch-out designators used with the envelope construction of this invention.

1n the drawings, the letter A designates generally the envelope construction of this invention. The envelope construction A is preferably made from a single sheet of paper or similar material and it includes a front section B having folds itl, 11, 12, and 14 (shown in dotted lines in FIG, l) at the edges thereof. As will be explained more in detail hereinafter, a back section C, a closure ap D and side flaps E and F are joined or are otherwise connected to the front section B at the folds 12, lil, 11 and 14, respectively. A narrow border is provided around the envelope construction A with designators which are adapted to be punched out, as will be more fully explained, so that a person using the envelope A or handling same may punch out the desired designator 0r designators for indicating the destination of the envelope A or other information in connection with such envelope A.

Considering the invention more specifically, the front section B has a border or rectangular frame of adhesive such as common glue formed on its inner surface, and such border of adhesive is formed by an adhesive band 11a positioned inwardly of the fold or fold line 11 (FIG. 1), an adhesive band 10a formed inwardly of the fold or fold line 1i) (FlG. l), an adhesive band 12a formed inwardly of the fold or fold line 12 (FIG. l); and an adhesive band 14a formed inwardly of the fold or fold line 14 (FIG. l). An adhesive band 10b is provided on the closure ap D outwardly of the fold or fold line 1Q, and such band 10b is preferably of the same width as the band 19a so that when the closure flap D is folded along the fold 1t) to the position shown in FIG. 2, the adhesive bands lila and 1Gb overlap and are coextensive with each other. Similarly, an adhesive band 11b is formed on the side section E outwardly of the fold or fold line 11. Such adhesive band 11b is preferably of the same width as the adhesive band 11a so that it overlies and is substantially coextensive with the band 11a when the end section E is folded on the fold 11 to the position shown in FIG. 2. Also, an adhesive band 12b is formed on the back section C adjacent to the fold 12 and outwardly thereof. Such band 12b is preferably substantially the same width as the band 12a and is preferably substantially coextensive therewith so as to overlie the band 12a when the back section C is folded on the fold 12 to the position shown in FlG. 2. Likewise, an adhesive band leb is provided on the side section F adjacent to the adhesive band 14a and outwardly of the fold 14. The band leb is preferably the same width and is substantially coextensive with the band 14a so as to overlie same when the side section F is folded on the fold 14 to the position shown in FIG. 2.

To form the border or narrow band around the envelope A as shown in FIG. 2, the closure ap D, side flap E, back section C and side section F are folded from the position shown in FG. 1 of the drawings along the folds 10, 11, 12 and 14, respectively, so as to bring the ading out of a particular one of the designators .95 such as indicated at 35 in 2 would indicate that the destination of the envelope was to a particular State represented by that number on the code chart. For each State, there would be a separate chart listing the cities of that State in relationship to the numbers adjacent to the designators 36 and also preferably the designators so that there would be an extremely iarge number of cities possible in each State for designation. Therefore, if a particular city in a State is picked such as indicated at 3o in FiG. 2, the number opposite that punched out opening would indicate on the chart which city was being designated. Similarly, the zones 'would be designated by punching out one of the designators 37 such as indicated at 37.

It the postal system does the punching out of the designators, then the code charts would be retained and used by the postal employees and the senders or" the envelopes would not need to know the code and the sender would not do the punching ont of the designators. ln fact, the punching out of the designators could even be accomplished by a machine or machines.

In any event, when the desired designators have been punched out, the envelope along with other envelopes having similar designators would be run through a conventional mechanical or electronic business machine to first separate or sort the letter as to the State of destination. The letters which are sorted as to States may then be sent to a central receiving station in each State of destination and there the letters may be sorted by similar business machines as to cities and Zones. Or, it will be appreciated that if desired the letters can be initially sorted both as to State, city and zone and then forwarded to the city destination for distribution.

Various other types of information may be incorporated by changing the code charts used in conjunction with the envelope construction A so that the numerals adjacent to each of the designators represent a dierent designation or information. For example, if it was desired to use the strip of designators 35 for designating the same information as the strip 23 of designators 3o, the designators 35 would be staggered laterally or length-wise with respect to the designators 36 as shown in FG. 2 so that a single machine could pick up the designations which were punched out in either of the strips 2i? or 23. However, normally it will not be necessary to stagger the designators 35 and 36 with respect to each other.

The foregoing disclosure and description of this invention is illustrative and explanatory thereof and various changes in the size, shape and materials, as well as in the details of the illustrated construction, may be made within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In an envelope construction having a sheet of flexible material having a front section, a back section joined to the lower edge of said front section and having a fold therebetween, a closure iiap joined to the upper edge of said front section and having a fold therebetween, and a side section joined to each side of said front section and having a fold Ibetween each side section and said front section, the improvement residing in, adhesive means securing a narrow portion of said front section and a narrow portion of said back section together along the fold therebetween to form a lower strip, adhesive means securing a narrow portion of said front section and a narrow portion of said closure fiap together along the fold therebetween to form an upper strip, adhesive means securing a narrow portion of said front section and a narrow portion of each side section together along the respective folds between each side section andsaid front section to form a side strip on each side of the envelope, said back section and said end sections having overlapped portions, means securing said overlapped portions together to form an envelope pocket confined by said lower strip, upper strip and side strips, said closure liap having an adhesive surface which is adapted to be contacted with the upper portions of the back section and side sections for closing said envelope pocket to seal a letter therein, and a single row of perforated punch-out designators formed in each of said lower strip, upper strip, and side strips for designating the destination or other information in connection with a letter or the like transmitted in said envelope.

2. The envelope construction set forth in claim l, wherein the edges of the side sections, back section and closure flap which are adjacent to each other at each corner formed at the intersection of the lower strip, upper strip and side strips are in abutting relationship to prevent the forming of a greater thickness at such corners than throughout the rest of the strips whereas the portions of the edges ofthe side sections, back section and closure iiap which extend inwardly from the lower` strip, upper strip, and side strips overlap with each other to form the envelope pocket.

3. The envelope construction set forth in claim 1, wherein the punch-out designators are aligned in a row on each of said lower strip, uppepr strip, and side strips.

4. The envelope construction set forth in claim 1, wherein the punch-out designators are aligned in a row along the upper strip and the punch-out designators are aligned in a row along the lower strip, and wherein at least a portion of the punch-ont designators in the row along the upper strip are staggered with respect to at least a portion of the punch-out designators in the row along the lower strip.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,198,127 Rembold Apr. 23, 1940 2,289,118 Hatton July 7, 1942 2,675,170 Sebesta Apr. 13, 1954 2,709,001 Stahl May 24, 1955 2,742,222 Braccio Apr. 17, 1956 2,775,405 Paston Dec. 25, 1956 2,890,825 Patrick June 16, 1959 2,918,921 Carlston Dec. 29, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 65,180 Austria June 10, 1914 322,490 Switzerland July 31, 1957 

